Tunable microstrip patch antenna using FSS for WLAN applications

In this paper, a design of compact tunable microstrip antenna using frequency selective surface (FSS) is proposed and presented. The designed antenna module (microstrip patch and FSS structure) operates in the C-band at (5–6.6 GHz) which incorporates a number of wireless applications. The proposed antenna module has been analyzed, designed and simulated using CST MW simulator. The antenna has been fabricated on Rogger 5880 substrate and the FSS is fabricated on FR-4 substrate. The designed antenna has been tested and fairly good agreement has been obtained between measured and simulated results. In order to facilitate the design, an equivalent circuit of unit cell has been presented using ADS package, its performance has been compared with the simulation result of the proposed unit cell. The proposed design has the advantage of movable FSS for the same antenna to select the required frequency. Simulation results show that the operating frequency of the antenna can be tuned by physically changing the space or the angle between patch and FSS. The results obtained show that the operating frequency depends upon the dimension of FSS substrate, FSS shape and space between FSS and patch antenna in addition to the rotation angle. The proposed antenna module is compact and it is suitable for different application, including Wifi and WiMax systems.